The present invention relates to an ink jet recording apparatus for jetting liquid ink, by the application of pressure or voltage, towards a recording medium to delineate a desired image.
Various types of ink jet recording apparatuses have hitherto been suggested and, in general, they all have the following common drawbacks:
(1) One or more ink jetting nozzles are susceptible to ink clogging.
(2) The response to an image signal applied is so low as to hamper the high speed recording.
(3) Complicated procedures are required to recover unnecessary ink.
(4) The concentration and the saturation of the delineated image tend to be short of the requirements.
(5) The image permanency, represented by, for example, the light resistance and the water resistance, is insufficient.
Although various attempts have been made to substantially eliminate these drawbacks, none of them has been successful in view of the fact that elimination of one or some of the drawbacks resulted in enhancement of the other drawback or drawbacks. By way of example, while the use of ink of low viscosity is desirable for the response to be increased, it results in the use of the reduced amount of dyestuff and resin, which in turn result in the reduced image permanency with the reduced concentration and saturation of the delineated image. In the case with an on-demand type, no unnecessary ink is produced, but the response is undesirably low. On the other hand, an attempt has also been made to apply to the recording medium an image improver and/or a modifier for increasing the image permanency for the purpose of substantially eliminating the above described drawbacks, and this technique is found to have such a disadvantage as to result in the recording medium having a poor ink retention property.